Cary rocket 88 vs dynaco st70


I currently have a completely rebuilt and upgraded dynaco st70 that sounds very nice in my system.

Classe dr6 pre
Quad 11L monitors
Denon dvd/sacd

I am having some low level hum from my dynaco, and am considering a used Cary rocket 88.
If you have a rocket 88,how quiet are they,and would this be an overall sound quality upgrade over the dynaco?
Speakers are 6ohm, 86db and have plenty of volume with the dynaco.

I had a pair of 96db klipsch kg4 in the system and the hum was unbearable.

There are no groundloop issues since my bryston 3b at has no hum in the system.
????
dave
dav65mus

Showing 1 response by dav65mus

The dynaco amp is a completely rebuilt unit from a reputable audiogoner that has several st 70's currently offered now.

Every part is new and upgraded in the st 70.... a brand new stock driver board.... all new caps, resistors, tube sockets, etc. The only thing original are the 2 cloth lead output transformers and power transformer.It has upgraded rca inputs and 5 way binding posts for the speakers, along with an upgraded power cord that I can isolate ground from.

I have a comcast cable ground loop hum that causes about 50% of the hum in the system.... when I am not watching movies or t.v., I disconnect the cable and it is much quieter.

But there is still a low hum from the dynaco that is not there when I have the bryston amp installed.

When there is music source playing the amp sounds incredible..... way better than the bryston.... but during silent passages you can hear a slight low hum even on the 86db quad 11L speakers.

My preamp has balanced xlr outputs that I can use on the cary rocket 88 which are obviously not able to be used with the st70. Maybe this would help in overall sound in the system also.

So anyone who may have heard both amps, would the cary be a decent improvement over the warm musical sound of my st70 (slight hum and all).

I would like to have an amp that can be switched between ul and triode to see if I might want to work my way up to a 300b set with matching speakers someday.

Thanks Dave